Susan Fales-Hill
When Susan Fales-Hill agreed to pay ballerina Misty Copeland's salary for American Ballet Theatre in 2004, the TV writer-producer rocketed into prominence as a new force driving the arts to diversify. For a time, Copeland was ABT's only Black performer; today, Black dancers comprise about 10% of the company.
That's thanks in large part to Fales-Hill's influence, both as a prodigious fundraiser who has chaired several of ABT's glitzy galas and as a board trustee pushing the nonprofit to foster new talent in diverse communities. An executive producer for Max's And Just Like That…, Fales-Hill says her arts philanthropy is inspired by having watched her mother, Haitian-American actress Josephine Premice, and other Black performers struggle to find work when she was growing up.
'I knew from as soon as I started making money that part of my job would be to give it away and use the access I had to open doors for others,' Fales-Hill says.
Fales-Hill and her husband also endow a scholarship at the private high school their daughter attended and last year helped creat a fund at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for a series of symposia on civil discourse.
'It's all about reinforcing our common humanity and leveling the playing field so that everyone has an equal chance,' she says. 'Everyone's not going to have the same outcome, but everyone needs an equal chance.'
Contact us at letters@time.com.
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